She wrote me in early May to say she was working on a story for STIR, the Sherwin Williams on-line magazine. She wrote: "I'm writing about how homeowners are converting formal spaces into more casual ones. Didn't you turn your dining room into a home office? "

She then emailed me some very specific questions, such as "What was our thought process behind this conversion"...oh, yes, we did indeed turn our dining room, in our newly purchased house, into a study for my husband. In case you missed it, you can read the details here and here.

(after renovation: the new study and French doors)

Other questions, which she addresses in the article, included how and where we now entertain, what specific architectural changes did we have to make, and what do I feel about the use of formal dining areas in today's contemporary home. Great questions!

Thanks for this opportunity Kelly; and I hope others can use some of our thoughts and ideas...

05/26/2011

These gems are blooming everywhere down here and they are so different from the magnolias up North. I pass so many of them each morning on my walks (when I am without a camera!), so went back yesterday to take these pictures. I didn't get any good shots of the leaves, but I love them too...huge, brown on the underside and then that wonderful shiny green on top. I would love to plant one of the trees in our garden but, alas, they get too big for our space. I will have to be content with viewing them on my walks!

05/19/2011

It's been gray and rainy over a lot of the country...and we're all so ready for sunshine. The flowers, of course, are just loving this rain. But then again, they just might like to see the sun too! These are just some of the flowers in my garden this week:

04/27/2011

This was a lo....ng wait. We ordered these two runners through Joss & Main, and then we waited, and waited, and waited. They were held up in customs we were told. But finally, they arrived and I love them!

They're made from recycled plastic and are totally washable. An added benefit is that they sort of stick to the floor: no slipping at all! And they're comfy on the feet: like nice, thick padding.

Here is the company website, although I couldn't find any retailers in the States (and no, the sale at Joss & Main is long over).

Looking up toward the ceiling:

The spots are ok...but I wanted the look of pendants over the center island.

Well, you just never know do you? They arrived and no, they just were not right.

Too large. Too bulky. Too in-your-face. So back they went.

The search was on, and this is what we ordered from Destination Lighting. They are oh so PERFECT, and you can't beat the price! Just wonderful. Subtle, soft, contemporary and go so well with the colors (that story is coming next week!).

04/20/2011

They are SO big. Do you fill them with dirt? Oh so heavy.. Do you use plastic peanuts in the bottom? They get very soggy... Do you put a plastic pot inside the terra cotta or ceramic planter? Not a great look...

It's been a "garden problem" for years!

Problem solved. Go on over to Ups-a-Daisy. Mine arrived today, Wednesday after placing my order on Sunday. No extra charge, just fast service! You might also find them at your local garden center; I wasn't able to so ordered on line.

It's an insert. It sits about half way down the pot (measure carefully)...meaning that you then only need to fill the top half (about) of your pot.

Problem solved!

Next up: we have Corian counter tops with the one-piece, molded sinks. It's something I've wanted for years: no seams, no metal pieces, clean looking etc. Only problem is that, for some reason, glasses break very easily! We never had this issue with stainless steel. In addition, the sink slants, every so slightly, toward the center so any glass, especially a wine glass, falls right over on its side.

04/19/2011

To everyone.... we never knew we had so many friends, acquaintances, interested parties....who has asked how we are in the aftermath of the front page news of tornadoes in North Carolina:

WE ARE FINE!

thank you for your concern!

But yes, here is a video of some of the damage:

This was just 30 miles south of us. We have a friend who lives down there who's house was damaged, but not badly...unlike his neighbor who's house was flattened.

And, we happened to be up in Raleigh that afternoon; that was where one entire neighborhood was destroyed. We only saw a bit of rain and yes, some fairly severe wind (actually I wondered if my car was going to be blown off the highway...). But it never seemed THAT bad to us, and we didn't have the radio on.

04/05/2011

Milk and Cookies is a shop on Etsy (you DO know Etsy, right?) So....I've been looking around for just the right throw pillows to put on our twin mahogany beds in the guest room.

Here's the package:

They are perfect! All linen with an envelope back. The bed covers are actually duvet covers, from Pottery Barn. I've stopped putting the duvet inside any cover: I like the look of a real "bed spread" with the duvet at the foot of the bed. What do you think? Yes?

But it was tricky finding just the right print to go with the busy, multi-colored spreads/covers. And now, I am on the hunt for fabric for curtains. Here's one I picked up the other day:

Take a look at the transformation of the guest room:

From plain vanilla white to Ben Moore "Palladian Blue". We had first used this blue in our bedroom up north...I'm NOT a big "blue" fan, but it worked beautifully there in a north facing room with limited light. Here the windows face both south and west...so no problem with light! And I love the combination of a grayed blue with red; thus the hunt for some sort of red curtains. Nothing heavy in weight: I want a loose, breezy sort of look; and I think just one panel to pull back to one side.

03/29/2011

" A 1993 Gold Medal Plant Award Winner, Viburnum x burkwoodii 'Mohawk' is loaded with clusters of ornamental dark red flower buds for several weeks before opening in mid to late April to exhibit its showy blossoms and strong, spicy scent. A display of beautiful flowers that last for weeks."

It joined another happy resident: our light pink Camellia "Sasanqua"

(I know, it says "park", but it's in our yard!)

I'm pleased to report that all residents are doing well and seem to be quite happy!

03/23/2011

and this one just was not cutting it...Faux textured plastic, a scrungy handle that had seen many better days, and a tacky doorbell. Something had to be done about this.

A work in progress:

Here you can also see the reflection from the film we had installed on the glass. This door faces West. The wood door and it's handle, just behind here, get SO hot in the afternoon sun that you almost cannot touch them. The film has made SUCH a difference...and, we are assured, will make a huge difference in the interior temperture come summer.

Well, the tacky doorbell is still there...I'm looking, I'm looking. Who knew? There are wired and wireless, there are bells, chimes and buzzers. There are simple, tasteful, and there are t a c k y , y u c k y doorbells.

Susan of Between Naps on the Porch has a very good post on painted front doors over on Houzz, called "Your Entry: Mad About Red". If you don't know this site, take a look! It's full of great images and information on almost anything to do with home design.

And so, the search for just the right doorbell continues. And once again, I will be visiting the paint stores in search of that perfect front door color!

03/20/2011

The weather was beautiful; we went to several local nurseries; went to the G R E A T farmer's market up in Carrboro; and spent a lot of time outside organizing, planting, thinking color.

This is one of the new items I bought "Micro Tip Blades". Fabulous! I was so tired of using the bulky pruning scissors, and always having to search for them to bring inside when I was arranging flowers! What do you have? Do you keep a separate pair inside? These are perfect. Small, precise, easy to store. They even come with that little orange, plastic cover for the tips.

03/03/2011

it had very plain white: walls, woodwork, cabinets, knobs, faucet. The parquet floors are throughout the downstairs: not my favorite, but I can live with them (for a while...)! But the REAL question was color. We have several different design "areas" going on here: the walls, of course, the wall just above the counters (aka backsplash), the gray corian counter tops, the butcher block island top, and...don't forget:

the ceiling!

Yes, the first time I saw this room my eye went directly upward to that great expanse of ceiling. It called out for some real color.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...let's go back to the walls. Here is the main counter area:

We thought we would paint the back splash area, and one of my first testers was that wonderful "Mysterious" from Benjamin Moore that we had used, so successfully, in the lavatory. And yes, I will give you another post about that wonderful little room and some more great details in there. Maybe next week?

Needless to say, the Mysterious didn't work so well in the kitchen! Yellow? Gray? The debate went on for weeks months. When I couldn't stand it any longer (or, truthfully, husband couldn't stand it any longer....) I looked for advice. Off I went (virtually) to Kelly at Porterhouse Designs. Kelly is in the Washington, D.C. area so I had thought she might be able to actually come down and take a look at my house & kitchen. Well, we ended up working solely on line, from videos I had made of the space, from more pictures, from endless reference ideas I would send to her and several phone meetings. And this is a part of the design board she came up with:

Look down on the lower left: I had said I was thinking of doing a tile backsplash in subway tiles. I'll talk more about those great paint colors, chairs, knobs and more in future posts, but for today I'll continue with the tile story!

Here's a before and after of the recessed window area above the sink:

I'm SO glad we decided to do that entire area with tile. What a difference. We even took out the woodwork just below the window frame to make room for one row of tiles.

These tiles are just.....off white and have a really unique beveled edge so they don't look so flat and dull.

Perfect! They are exactly what I wanted. What is it about tiles? I've never had them in a kitchen before; but what a difference. They finish it off? They make it look like a kitchen? They add a warmth? I'm not sure, but I know we made the right decision.

02/22/2011

My newly discovered Hellebores. They were buried under so many huge, old leaves that you couldn't see any flowers at all. The garden had not been tended in at least five years and yes, I am loving getting my hands on this!

and this little guy! He's a morning glory who snuck down here in the pot with my geranium! You've seen him before here.

02/16/2011

I've never really paid that much attention to the lighting in our house(s). Either it worked or it didn't...Floor lamps, table lamps, the occasional sconce, some rather basic track lighting, those awful lights that come with overhead fans, small nothing lights that are stuck to the ceiling and collect dead flies inside. You get the idea.

You've seen some views of the entry hall in our new house:

Above and below is the entry, totally empty and very white. I think these were actually taken before we had even bought the house.

And here, below, it's coming along... Thanks to Kelly at ArteStyling, we have the gray and yellow working together beautifully.

The ceiling in this area is 19 feet high. The previous owner had no lighting at all, although there was an obvious outlet in the ceiling.

By the time they finished the installation, it was late afternoon and the sun was streaming in those high western-facing windows. The walls are actually that pale gray color, but they sure took on a yellow cast here!

02/14/2011

I've been working on it...and in it...for several months and have something to show you.

That blank wall there was just crying out for a 'bulletin board', 'memo board', 'white board', 'inspiration board'. Whatever you call it, I wanted some way to tack up my inspiration pictures, memos, notes etc. In my old studio I had had a huge board made from homasote. I had painted it white and then made a 1" frame all around it.

So, of course, I looked for homasote. No one at the big box stores had ever heard of it...seems I would have to order huge sheets of it from a small store and no, they would not cut it for me. Hmmm. The hunt began.

And here you have the result: ceiling tiles!

They were a perfect size: 24" square. I like squares. They were a little crumbly...hmmm. To keep them totally intact I spray painted the backs in white.

I've had my eye on the spray paints from Maine Cottage. They don't make many colors: but the ones they carry are wonderful and clean and contemporary. I chose "Zinnia"

and went to town spraying:

The final board(s):

The board has a flat border/edge of half an inch. I could leave it plain...no! What a boring end to this story...

I could paint it a dark brown/gray (Iron Mountain perhaps?) to mimic the carpet color. Still too simple.

Embellish! Of course. Being a good blogger and aspiring DIY'er, that was the solution! Off to JoAnn's to look for ribbon. And here it is:

I actually used 'Liquid Stitch', which is for fabric. It worked well, but you have to be patient as it does take a while to dry.

Do you know these "Command" products? Fabulous!! They're sticky on both sides and REALLY hold. But they also come off the wall easily and leave both surfaces totally clean. They are a great invention! I used four for each board and, believe me, they are solid and secure.

Here's the final shot: yes, it looks washed out..the lighting in here is very tricky. It's either too bright and sunny or very much in shadow.

I'm going to do another post about my office...I have a slide show of the total chaos in here the days after we moved, and then another show of the (almost) complete organization that now reigns!

01/28/2011

Today I'm joining the party over at Room Remix, one of my very favorite blogs! PK does a fabulous job of blogging...about all kinds ofdetailsof interiors.

She has been running a series, named "Paint", this week, asking six different designers various questions about their use of paint in interiors. They have been very interesting questions and the answers are great to read for their variety. So, do go and take a look and I know you will learn something! It's been great for me as just this week I've been looking at neutrals for our master bathroom. I have testers on the walls, but nothing seems right. Enter PK with her question: "What are three of your favorite neutrals?".How perfect is that?

I'm waiting for my sample sheets to arrive tomorrow from Ben Moore!

You DO know about these color sheets, don't you? Here's the link. It's a wonderfully efficient way to see a good size color swatch on your wall: you don't have to buy dozens of sample pints and you don't have to prime over your color swatches!

I've done several posts the past few months on our new house and the interior paint challenges I've been dealing with... So I thought I would review those here. Some of you will recognize parts of this, and for others it will all be new.

Here's my beginning color palette

grays and more grays

I never, in a million years, thought I would love gray this much!

And here were some of the names:

amulet

fog mist

mysterious

chestertown buff

moroccan spice

marblehead gold

edgecomb gray

iron mountain

pale avocado

yellow bisque

The master bedroom in "Marblehead Gold"

My office in Pale Avacado

and with the Stirling Gray rug:

And now, the famous "Iron Mountain";

We sanded the old wood and it's shiny surface, primed, put two coats of gloss, and then some varnish. Love love!

and the fireplace in same:

Front entry is "Pale Oak", and to the left you can just see "Straw Yellow". They look wonderful together, and as this is basically one large space, work well with the white woodwork.

This is certainly not finished yet, but here's the lav in BM "Mysterious". It's spectacular! I'll do another post on this room next week to show you the details!

And now comes the biggest challenge of all: the kitchen. We have been round and round and round on this one. My latest idea is to paint the ceiling "Jasper Yellow".

On the left is what you see on a monitor, coming from the Ben Moore color swatch. It is not even close. I played around in Photoshop, trying to match my fan deck color, and on the right is about as close as i can come:

You will surely be seeing more of my kitchen and all the ideas I'm playing with.

01/12/2011

Here are the bookcases we had built for my husband's study. Why raise them off the floor, you ask? Scroll down.....

We "inherited" a wonderful Persian Oriental rug from my sister-in-law. It was the perfect size for this room, but minus the intrusion of the bookcases. So: simple solution: raise the shelves! It works beautifully.

Door handles: love these very solid brushed chrome handles from The Hardware Hut.

actually, there is a chair rail, and the lighter color on the bottom I can't remember ...sorry.

It's a wonderfully neutral gray/green: not too dark and is a great backdrop for photographs.

And here, finished, is the stair railing in Iron Mountain!

love love love

Not a great shot here, but take one last look at those horrendous sconces; they are soon to be replaced. And, we got some really FABULOUS lighting for this front hall. It won't be up for several weeks, but just wait til you see it! It will be eye-catching!!

Afternoon shadows:

Late winter afternoon, looking west from the stairs:

I'm signing off for the week. I'll be in Atlanta for Market week, meeting with artists and customers, and seeing lots of new things.

01/09/2011

I know, I've taken my time in posting the changes in our new house. Trying to gather, organize, resize and post these pictures has been quite a job! We closed on the house the first week of August and right away we began making changes. We weren't living here, so construction was no problem for us...I came down every few weeks to check on things, and of course, to paint. You've read some of my paint "challenges" and choices, and discussions, and narrowing down the palette, and the help I received from Kelly! You can look back here and here and here.

Outside of the HUGE issue of paint and colors, we also wanted to remake part of the main living area. As you walk in the front door, or look down from the stairs here, you see the wide open space of the living room and then dining room. They are were very open, with only a slight divider on each side, and the dining room is was totally open to the front hall area. One of our requirements for this new house was an office for my husband, and this space fit beautifully...except it needed to be enclosed. How to enclose without making it dark and tomb-like (no window in the room)?

These three shots show you the space, as it was:

Two months later:

Wall between the two rooms, with a transom window at top:

view from the living room:

starting to frame out for the French doors:

the doors the day they arrived:

they look enormous!

And the (almost) final result:

French doors installed with another transom window above. This side gets brilliant afternoon sunlight as there are windows way up...and the ceilings here, in the front hall, are 19 feet so that sunlight really comes streaming in!

View from the living room. Window looks stark here, but it really works!

Looking in, with the endless paint samples on wall:

and looking out:

Later this week I'll show you some of the details in this area: the door handles, the paint color(s) for the study, the final paint for the front hall area and living room. Yes, it's come a long way baby!

12/19/2010

First, I won a giveaway over at Pink Pig Blog. Take a look at Debbie's wonderful blog and store. I've been following her for quite some time now: she's located up in Westport, New York and carries a huge and varied line of products.

This is what I won:

These are from The Uptown Soap Company and are FABULOUS! I adore the scent and will most certainly buy more when these are gone. And the bonus here is that their graphics and packaging are unusual, artistic and almost too nice to break open..

That was all fine. But the BIG news of last week is that...ta da...drum roll....we are all moved! Yes, the moving truck showed up one week ago on a raw, rainy, snowy day. Isn't that everyone's worst nightmare? To have movers trekking through your house, wet feet everywhere, carrying your possessions out to the truck and packing them in there, still wet?

Here's the inside of the enormous truck. We were about 30% of the total load. It's been 25 years since we have moved...so this was a BIG EVENT.

And then, four days later, the truck and same driver arrived in North Carolina. Just our luck: the day was snowy, icy and rainy. Oh no! Not again... The driver had trouble finding locals who would even venture out to do this job, but we ended up, in the afternoon, with the MOST superb group of men who were so efficient, helpful, amusing and just plain nice.

This is what our "Southland" terrace looked like that morning. Hmmmm: not quite what we expected!

But by 2 PM the truck pulled up:

and we were off and running

thanks Lenny, thanks Rodney!

My one geranium that made the trip down at my feet in the car:

And then, of course, the fun began as we unpacked how many...has to be about two hundred boxes. Then the question of what to do with all those (flattened) boxes and packing material. I put an ad on CraigsList, "free", Saturday night at 11 PM and by Sunday morning had ten responses. So, all the boxes are gone and so is every last piece of newsprint paper and bubble wrap!

But the "Christmas came early" part happened as I unpacked the kitchen boxes. It just amazed me that my things, every last one, arrived safe and sound. As I plunged into yet another box and saw my favorite vase, or that old blue casserole dish, it was as though they were new and I was unwrapping a present! "Oh yes, I remember you" or "Wow, my best serving platter".

11/30/2010

I painted the mantle and fireplace and I LOVE it. Gorgeous. It's contemporary, not too serious, unusual and just plain good looking. I couldn't be happier.

Scroll down to the second picture, see the vertical strips on either side of the fireplace? Those will be painted the same color as the walls: Pale Oak.

Here's an image from Decor Pad that shows Pale Oak. I looked all over the internet to show you: but the BM paint chips all look too beige on my screen. This image shows the color the best...

Painting these strips will tie it all together but also make the detail stand out a little more.

The clock is an antique family piece that I've had for years.

And here it is (was) in all it's White Linen glory:

Because the living areas are really one big space (as opposed to my present 100+ year old house with very defined rooms), I wanted to carry the Iron Mountain through to the hall and stairs. The railing was stained a very ordinary dark walnut looking color....so I sanded off the varnish, Kiltzed it, and am in the process of painting several coats of the Iron Mountain.

11/28/2010

You're kidding, right? It's almost Christmas? Well, you would never know it by looking at my garden in our new house! For those of you who live down South, or in warmer climates...no big deal. But for those of us who come from anywhere North, this is a real treat!

I am really loving how it changes through the seasons and seems to look better as the months go by...

Narcissus? Not sure.

On the left here is the newly scrubbed fence, and on the right what is left after three years of neglect.

Again, you can see the cleaned fence over to the left:

I'm linking up today with Susan at A Southern Daydreamer:

Every other blog has lots to say about Christmas decorating. Well, all my ornaments and decorations, and even my wrapping paper and ribbon, are all packed away. Hope you enjoy this bit of springtime in almost-December.

11/18/2010

We're headed down for a week in our new house. We move for good in just three short weeks. Between organizing, packing, constant telephone calls, setting up new bank accounts, both personal and business, hauling things into the car to go for giveaway, waiting for the junk man to arrive with his truck, taking our 'hazmats' to the county recycle center...well, you get the idea. I won't be doing much blogging for the next few weeks.

I'll try to give you some updates on the house: maybe a picture of us up on ladders, painting who-knows-which-room... or Thanksgiving dinner out on our terrace!

11/07/2010

Packing up a house--getting ready to move all your belongings--is a wonderful time to really look over what you have. No, not with the intent to throw out or give away....but just to take a moment and SEE what you have. It was an opportunity I didn't want to miss! Yesterday morning was "do the dining room" time. One sideboard with four drawers, a table with one drawer, and a tall breakfront. Now, the movers will be packing all our kitchen and dishes, so I did leave the china in the breakfront for them..but still, there were linens, antique silver etc.

The day was bright and sunny, and our dining room has a beautiful bay window facing East (which was one of the top reasons we bought the house in the first place) so the light was perfect for taking some pictures.

The porringer at right, and small spoon, were my husband's when he was a baby...

ready to be packed up: but the colors all go together so well, even the yellow wall and a corner of our new painting make a perfect tableau!

all antique, family linens

Herend china; part of our wedding present collection

From "Southern Pottery Inc.": U.S. made, collected at various antique shows.

Royal Worcester demi-tasse bought by my sister-in-law in England as a wedding present

And...one of my own designs, from Deruta!

Today was "basement" day. Nothing...believe me...nothing noteworthy to show you! But it's finished. What to do with all the terra cotta pots? Mine are fairly large. We've emptied them, cleaned them and now what? I'm thinking a piece of newspaper in between the pots, then stack them. They can't go in a box: do the movers wrap them and that's it? Not sure.

10/27/2010

And so, it was the high point of my week and of my visit to San Francisco to sit and talk about all our new house colors with Kelly of ArteStyling. If you will remember, I had asked Kelly, as a fellow blogger, a virtual friend, and an expert on color, if she would be willing to help me with the colors in our new house. Now, I do, of course, know something about color....but this house has so many tall, interconnected, light filled, related spaces that I was having trouble! I'm used to 100+ year old houses with well defined rooms and spaces. To now have cathedral ceilings, stairs with space that soars to the roof, transom windows above the already long windows, light from both the east and west in the main areas, an open floor plan.....well, it was just a lot to take on!

We had been back and forth about all the possibilities. She had me send pictures of my present house and what I would be taking, and using, in the new house. Did I want the same color story again? No. What were some adjectives I would use to describe my new place? What words to describe each room and the feeling I was trying to achieve? Did I want to paint the cathedral ceilings to bring them down?

Even before we started our talks I had my eye on gray. And yellow. And deep rusty red to punch it up. I'm not a blue person. Maybe some green somewhere.

amulet

fog mist

mysterious

chestertown buff Don't you love the names?

moroccan spice

marblehead gold These are some of the finalists!

edgecomb gray

iron mountain

pale avocado

yellow bisque

There are so many rooms to walk you through, so let's start, once again, with the lavatory. Here is the post I did to introduce the lav.

And here are some pictures:

Here's the original lav picture. The mirror has got to go!

Here's the primer (didn't have a roller that night, so I had to brush...yes, brush it on!)

It's difficult to read, and more difficult to get the color in a photo, but this is "Mysterious". The walls were super smooth: we had removed all the hardware and had the walls professionally taped and sanded. I used a semi-gloss in the Benjamin Moore Aura. Have I told you just how MUCH I adore the Aura paint? What a difference. So smooth; perfect, really perfect coverage; cutting in at the ceiling is so easy; almost no odor. I can't recommend it highly enough.

I am open to any and all suggestions for this "skirt". It's wooden with that panel around the center. I could stencil it. I could cover the panel in a fun paper. I could make a fabric skirt to the floor. But no, I can't remove it! Anyone want to help me here?

Master bedroom:

I did several testers right on the wall.And the winner is.....ta da....."Marblehead Gold".

Levelor blinds are being replaced with white "Plantation Shutters". Thank you Tammy of InStitches: another blogger friend who lives and works in the area, came to the house earlier in the month while I was there, and arranged for the shutters!

A corner of the room shown here with the one and only piece of furniture in place at the moment...the new dresser from Pottery Barn, "Valencia".

My husband was in dire need of a new dresser. We don't need anything too tall or wide, as the closet is really a dressing room at 7' x 14'. Now, that is the subject of an entire post: what to do with the dressing room....I'll save that for later.

After our delicious lunch, sitting in that great sunshine, at the Ferry Building:

btw Kelly: that half sandwich I took home was my entire lunch on the plane the next day! No food at all: not even for sale. Thanks goodness I had it!

10/13/2010

Oh so cute. There he was, on the terrace, right outside the kitchen of our new house. My daughter opened the door, s..l...o...w...l...y, and started snapping pictures as she went. We think she got to within three feet of this cutie.

I look forward to his return!

Remember this guy?

He was in my post about "Garden Ornaments". One bunny statue; one bunny hopping around: I love it!

It's also one of the Pottery Barn Fall 2010 colors. Love it, love it! I tested, I started to paint. Ah no...one coat will not do, so now I'm about to begin the second coat.

So far, so good. The room gets lots of Eastern light, so the mornings will be wonderful (my best time of day!).

And for the carpeting:

It's called "Vintage Sterling". This picture makes it look so dark, but it's actually a grayed silver. does that make sense? Well, it's beautiful. I think the combination is stunning. I have an upholstered armchair that I will recover. I'm thinking of adding a bit of red to the room, via the chair and maybe window trim of some sort...

09/30/2010

I had told you all, many weeks ago, that I would be working with a designer/blogger friend in exploring the color possibilities for our new house. I really didn't mean to make you wait this long...our trip, and life in general, sort of interrupted the train of thought/flow of information etc. on this project! I am working with.......!!!!!!!.....

Take a look at her site and you will agree that she has energy, a wonderful style and great sense of color. Thank you Kelly!

Kelly has very graciously and kindly agreed to work with me on this project and help with the color work involved. Yes, I DO work with color, and, as you have seen in my present house up North, I've done a pretty good job! But, this new house is so different. The light is different, the layout, the space, the contours, the openness of the rooms, the flow; even the age of the house makes it so very different: seventeen years young versus ninety years old. Here, every step we take is heard througout the house: all the floors creak, none of the doors shut really tightly. It's quirky, you might say. Well, the new house is just the opposite: silent floors, doors that glide shut quietly, cabinets that click shut easily and, in fact, kitchen drawers that look almost new and without tiny traces of many layers of contac paper!

Kelly lives in California; I am on the East Coast. So yes, this is a challenge. I am going out there in a few weeks so we will actually have a chance to sit and work together: I look forward to that! In the meantime, I have sent her many pictures and I made two videos of different areas of the house. But for this blog I am going to focus on specific areas, either as we work on them, or just because I want to show you!

First up: the lavatory! My "signature" lav is painted a dark, glossy green.

I know, you can see the little bleeps in the surface of the wall. Well, it's almost 100 years old, for goodness sake! But isn't that the cutest, most antiquated sink? The provencal skirt is missing here: sorry! Wish I had a picture of this room as it was when we moved in: the floor (beautiful hardwood) was covered in small purple and lavender ceramic tile and the walls were purple. Yikes!

Here's a shot of our new lav:

Plain Jane.

The towel bar and paper holder were anchored with tons of these 4" screws and metal mollies: what were they going to do: chin ups on the towel bar?

I tried to remove them but couldn't. Our contractor has agreed to take everything out, fill the holes, and smooth out the wall.

That faucet has got to go!

So, I was all set to paint it the same dark, glossy green. And then...well...after Kelly included some blue in her color palette for me (not knowing I am not a fan of blue...), I began thinking. Then I went to the Benjamin Moore paint section at my very nearby Ace Hardware and began looking at dark, very dark blues.

Voila! "Mysterious" from the Affinity line.

It's hard to tell here and in fact, it looks almost black. But it's not. It's spectacular with white woodwork. I'm excited and energized now to really be changing up the colors. Maybe the green has outstayed its welcome; and it just doesn't seem as contemporary as the blue.

Dare I ask for comments?

(and yes, I DO need suggestions for that wooden "skirt" around the new sink...)